"Football
hasn't even entered the regular season, and yet Western New Yorkers
are already facing blackouts of Buffalo Bills football games,"
Higgins said. "A determination by the FCC of whether this policy is
in the public interest is worthy of a serious and long-overdue
consideration."

In
January 2012, the FCC opened a public comment period on a proposed
elimination of the sports blackout rule. Higgins submitted a comment
and also urged Western New Yorkers to participate in the public
comment period.

Higgins
led several of his congressional colleagues in sending a letter to
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell asking for the league to end its
policy of game blackouts in home team media markets.

In
July 2012, Higgins hailed the NFL for amending its blackout policy to
allow owners to voluntarily broadcast football games to local markets
when stadiums are at 85 percent capacity. The Buffalo Bills chose not
to opt-in to this change. As team owners expressed issue with this
policy change, Higgins partnered with Senate colleagues to ask the
NFL to refine the policy to make it more appealing to both teams and
fans.